# What did people wipe/wash with before toilet paper. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 5, 2003, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831 "2003-06-05T14:43:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Francis\_E\_Dec\_Esq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@Francis\_E\_Dec\_Esq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_E_Dec_Esq)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/1 "2003-06-05T14:43:05Z")
[This interesting article](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2960146.stm) about toilets in the Middle Ages reminds us again that the Middle Ages, while no picnic, were not as bad as the popular view believes. It has me wondering again what people used in the days before mass produced toilet paper. Sure, there is the proverbial corn cob. And I’m sure that rural people had a variety of materials available. But I’m curious about the average town folk. What did they use? I’ve also seen people preferring washing with water in various underdeveloped countries. Was this ever prevalent in America? ( I hope so. TMI: I’m disgusted by my dry-wipe-only culture. That’s just not good enough, people. If you see someone in a public men’s room getting a wet paper towel before heading to the stall, that might be me.) ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/2 "2003-06-05T14:47:03Z")
[Corncobs and pages from the Sears catalog, it seems.](What did people wipe/wash with before toilet paper. ) ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/3 "2003-06-05T14:56:15Z")
Among materials that were used in Talmudic times (c. 100-500 CE) were leaves, smooth rocks and smooth pottery shards. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_E\_Dec\_Esq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@Francis\_E\_Dec\_Esq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_E_Dec_Esq)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/4 "2003-06-05T15:04:16Z")
I forgot to clarify that I am interested in the period immediately prior to toilet paper, and particularly (but not exclusively) America. I don’t know when that was, but say, circa the American Civil War. ---
**Author:** ![Mezantius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mezantius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mezantius)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/5 "2003-06-05T15:10:14Z")
The Romans used a communal brush at their public toilets… 😛 [http://home.attbi.com/~rthamper/html/body\_roman\_sanitation.htm](http://home.attbi.com/~rthamper/html/body_roman_sanitation.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/6 "2003-06-05T15:10:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Francis E Dec, Esq \* > \*\*( I hope so. TMI: I’m disgusted by my dry-wipe-only culture. That’s just not good enough, people. If you see someone in a public men’s room getting a wet paper towel before heading to the stall, that might be me.) \*\* TMI: the wet paper towel thing doesn’t work for m… I mean my ‘friend’, who ‘says’ he has a hairy arse, ‘apparently’, the wet paper towel just breaks up and gets entangled. Ahem. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/7 "2003-06-05T15:13:12Z")
The esteemed French author Rabelais offers a wide variety of options, in his classic [Gargantua and Panatgruel](http://www.unf.edu/classes/freshmancore/halsall/rabelais-goose.htm) (1532-1562): > [@](#): > > I have, answered Gargantua, by a long and curious experience, found out a means to wipe my bum, the most lordly, the most excellent, and the most convenient that ever was seen. What is that? said Grangousier, how is it? I will tell you by-and-by, said Gargantua. Once I did wipe me with a gentle-woman’s velvet mask, and found it to be good; for the softness of the silk was very voluptuous and pleasant to my fundament. Another time with one of their hoods, and in like manner that was comfortable. At another time with a lady’s neckerchief, and after that I wiped me with some ear-pieces of hers made of crimson satin, but there was such a number of golden spangles in them (turdy round things, a pox take them) that they fetched away all the skin of my tail with a vengeance. Now I wish St. Antony’s fire burn the bum-gut of the goldsmith that made them, and of her that wore them! This hurt I cured by wiping myself with a page’s cap, garnished with a feather after the Switzers’ fashion. > > Afterwards, in dunging behind a bush, I found a March-cat, and with it I wiped my breech, but her claws were so sharp that they scratched and exulcerated all my perinee. Of this I recovered the next morning thereafter, by wiping myself with my mother’s gloves, of a most excellent perfume and scent of the Arabian Benin. After that I wiped me with sage, with fennel, with anet, with marjoram, with roses, with gourd-leaves, with beets, with colewort, with leaves of the vine-tree, with mallows, wool-blade, which is a tail-scarlet, with lettuce, and with spinach leaves. . . . Then with mercury, with parsley, with nettles, with comfrey, but that gave me the bloody flux of Lombardy, which I healed by wiping me with my braguette. Then I wiped my tail in the sheets, in the coverlet, in the curtains, with a cushion, with arras hangings, with a green carpet, with a table-cloth, with a napkin, with a handkerchief, with a combing-cloth; in all which I found more pleasure than do the mangy dogs when you rub them. . . . I wiped myself with hay, with straw, with thatch- rushes, with flax, with wool, with paper . . . > > I wiped my bum, said Gargantua, with a kerchief, with a pillow, with a pantoufle, with a pouch, with a pannier, but that was a wicked and unpleasant torchecul; then with a hat. Of hats, note that some are shorn, and others shaggy, some velveted, others covered with taffeties, and others with satin. The best of all these is the shaggy hat, for it makes a very neat abstersion of the fecal matter. > > Afterwards I wiped my tail with a hen, with a cock, with a pullet, with a calf’s skin, with a hare, with a pigeon, with a cormorant, with an attorney’s bag, with a montero, with a coif, with a falconer’s lure. But, to conclude, I say and maintain, that of all torcheculs, arsewisps, bumfodders, tail-napkins, bunghole cleansers, and wipe-breeches, **there is none in the world comparable to the neck of a goose, that is well downed, if you hold her head betwixt your legs. And believe me therein upon mine honour, for you will thereby feel in your nockhole a most wonderful pleasure, both in regard of the softness of the said down and of the temporate heat of the goose, which is easily communicated to the bum-gut and the rest the inwards, in so far as to come even to the regions of the heart and brains.** And think not that the felicity of the heroes and demigods in the Elysian fields consisteth either in their asphodel, ambrosia, or nectar, as our old women here used to say; but in this, according to my judgment, that they wipe their tails with the neck of a goose, holding her head betwixt their legs, and such is the opinion of Master John of Scotland, alias Scotus. ---
**Author:** ![chm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@chm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chm)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/8 "2003-06-05T15:36:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Francis E Dec, Esq \* > \*\*I forgot to clarify that I am interested in the period immediately prior to toilet paper, and particularly (but not exclusively) America. I don’t know when that was, but say, circa the American Civil War. \*\* According to my grandmother, in her family newsprint was prefered over catalog pages, as it was the softer alternative. That’s in British Columbia in the 20’s and early 30’s. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/9 "2003-06-05T15:36:55Z")
[matrix reloaded reference] Like wiping your arse with silk ---
**Author:** ![aka\_10003](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@aka\_10003](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aka_10003)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/10 "2003-06-05T15:42:06Z")
" If you see someone in a public men’s room getting a wet paper towel before heading to the stall, that might be me.)" “the wet paper towel just breaks up and gets entangled” * * * I am glad to inform you that the Baby Wipes from your local drugstore will work just fine. And they’ll leave you baby fresh. ---
**Author:** ![ChunkyLover53](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c0e974/32.png) [@ChunkyLover53](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChunkyLover53)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/11 "2003-06-05T16:11:16Z")
According to the PBS series “Frontier House” each family member had a small piece of cloth on a nail in the outhouse. They were responsible for washing then replacing their own cloth after each use. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/12 "2003-06-05T16:16:44Z")
In some cultures, they used their left hand, which led to a strict taboo against eating with that hand. It is mentioned in, of all places, From Russia With Love, by Ian Fleming. James Bond is about to grab a piece of stew meat out of a communal pot in a gypsy encampment in Turkey, when Kerim Bey warns him sharply, “With the right hand, James! The left hand is used for only one purpose with these people.” It was some years before I figured out what he meant. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/13 "2003-06-05T16:30:18Z")
Three shells. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/14 "2003-06-05T17:30:23Z")
**Cecil Adams** on [What did people use before toilet paper was invented?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_373.html) ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/15 "2003-06-05T18:17:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mangetout \* > \*\*TMI: the wet paper towel thing doesn’t work for m… I mean my ‘friend’, who ‘says’ he has a hairy arse, ‘apparently’, the wet paper towel just breaks up and gets entangled. Ahem. \*\* Although located on different continents, we must have the same friend, what a coincidence. As he`s told me the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Penumbra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9f8e36/32.png) [@Penumbra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penumbra)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/16 "2003-06-05T18:56:09Z")
When did the practice of butt whiping begin? Surley there was a time in history when people just squatted down, emptied their bowels, and then just got back up and went on with their buisness. Are human beings the only animal to practice the art of butt whiping? ---
**Author:** ![Nate\_the\_Great](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ea924/32.png) [@Nate\_the\_Great](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nate_the_Great)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/17 "2003-06-05T19:34:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Penumbra \* > \*\*Are human beings the only animal to practice the art of butt whiping? \*\* Cats lick their butts. Dogs wipe their asses on the ground. Does that count? ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/18 "2003-06-05T20:02:56Z")
aka\_10003 says: > [@](#): > > I am glad to inform you that the Baby Wipes from your local drugstore will work just fine. And they’ll leave you baby fresh. Um . . . please read the directions on the package. If it doesn’t specifically allow flushing, you must dispose of the baby wipe in a trash can. Most baby wipes that I’ve checked on are not flushable. Go to the toilet paper section and look for Cottonelle flushable wipes. HTH ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/19 "2003-06-05T20:47:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by aka\_10003 \* > I am glad to inform you that the Baby Wipes from your local drugstore will work just fine. And they’ll leave you baby fresh. \*\* This I know… er… I mean, thanks, I’ll tell my ‘friend’ ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831/20 "2003-06-06T00:29:18Z")
I’m having a hard time envisioning the use of a corn cob. Shucked first? Kernels removed? Dinner leftover thats put in the belt for later use? Used in and out, or one slide vertically and rotate 1/4 inch? Sheesh! :eek: [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-wipe-wash-with-before-toilet-paper/179831.md?page=2)